It is no longer acceptable to point at every bird and say it’s a heron. The city of Denver has a new app that will allow all of your friends to see through your lies.

A black-crowned night heron. (Mike Baird/Wikimedia Commons)

The Denver Urban Birding Atlas is available for iOS and Android. It’s both bug-free and useful, which is kind of a miracle for government-adjacent software. It’s free, too.

The app contains a list of dozens of locally present species, from the American Avocet to the Yellow Warbler. Each one gets a descriptive page and photographs, and a list of all the parks and spots around town where you might see that species. You can also call up a list of all species present at a particular place, or call up a map of sites near you.

The software was developed by Squarei Technologies in Fort Collins. It cost $10,000, funded by a larger grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Author: Andrew Kenney

Andrew Kenney writes about public spaces, Denver phenomena and whatever else. He previously worked for six years as a reporter at The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C. His most prized possession is his collection of bizarre voicemail. Leave him one at 303-502-2803, or email akenney@denverite.com. View all posts by Andrew Kenney